AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I did not realise that you had such an unflattering opinion of me,’ he said drily.
His face was so close to hers that Paloma felt his breath graze her cheek. She could not look away from his sensual mouth as memories flooded her mind of being expertly kissed by him. The weight of his body held her pinned to the floor of the truck, and a purely feminine instinct made her splay her thighs a little so that her pelvis was flush with his.
His jaw clenched, and he flexed his arms and abruptly pushed himself off her. ‘Stay where you are,’ he ordered before he rolled across to the side of the truck, aimed his rifle out of the window and fired several rounds.‘Evvai!’There was satisfaction in his voice. ‘It’s safe for you to sit up,’ he told Paloma. ‘I shot out a front tyre on the other truck. The men who kidnapped you can’t harm you now.’
‘Whoareyou?’ she muttered.
‘I trained as a soldier in the Italian Army and belonged to the Ninth Paratroopers Assault Regiment. The regiment is a special forces unit, like the SAS in the British Army.’ There was quiet pride in Daniele’s voice. ‘An injury I sustained while I was on active service put an end to my military career, but I kept in touch with some of the other paras. When your flatmate told me you were in trouble, I contacted the school in Mali and learned that you had been kidnapped.’ His mouth tightened. ‘The country is notoriously dangerous, and kidnapping, especially of foreigners, is a serious threat. It was irresponsible of you to come here.’
‘I was aware of the risks,’ Paloma muttered. ‘But there is a shortage of schools and teachers in Mali, and without access to education, children’s life chances are reduced. Teaching was a practical way that I could help.’ She pushed her hair out of her eyes, certain she must look a bedraggled, sweaty mess. Reaction to her ordeal was setting in, and the censure in Daniele’s voice added guilt to the mix of her emotions. ‘I didn’t expect you would put your life in danger to rescue me. Thank you.’ She flushed as she acknowledged how inadequate her words were.
‘I promised your grandfather I would protect you,’ Daniele said curtly. Instantly Paloma felt that she was a liability. She had sometimes felt stifled by Nonno’s overprotectiveness. ‘I was assisted by some of my old army friends,’ Daniele told her. ‘We had a tip-off that led us to where the gunmen were holding you and I planned a rescue mission. In a few minutes we will arrive at an airstrip where a plane is waiting to fly us out of here.’
‘Does my grandfather know what happened to me?’
‘No.’ Daniele turned his head away and stared out of the window. Paloma had the feeling that he was avoiding her gaze.
‘Thank you for keeping my kidnap ordeal from Nonno,’ she said huskily. ‘I had made up a story that I was spending time at a wellness retreat because I didn’t want him to worry about me.’
‘There is something I must tell you.’ Daniele swore when the truck jolted on the uneven ground and Paloma fell against him. She put her hands on the solid wall of his chest to steady herself and was aware that his gaze had dropped to where her sweat-damp T-shirt was clinging to her breasts. To her horror, she felt her nipples harden, and she quickly shifted away from him. ‘I’ll talk to you when we are on the plane,’ Daniele said roughly.
A sense of dread dropped into the pit of Paloma’s stomach at his serious tone. They had reached an airfield and the truck pulled up next to a plane. She put her hand on Daniele’s arm. ‘Talk to me now.’
He exhaled slowly. ‘There is no easy way to break the news to you,cara. Marcello is dead.’
Her heart stopped. ‘It’s not true. It can’t be.’ She searched Daniele’s face for reassurance that she had misunderstood him but found none. ‘Nonno is not a young man, but he is remarkably fit and healthy for his age.’ Ithadto be a mistake. Paloma could not accept what Daniele had told her.
‘I’m sorry. I realise what a shock this is for you. Your grandfather had an aortic aneurysm. In layman’s terms, it means that the main blood vessel from his heart ruptured. We were playing golf when he collapsed with chest pains. I immediately called the emergency services and the medics fought to save him, but he died before he reached the hospital.’
‘Were you with him when...when he died?’ Paloma choked. Her throat was clogged with tears as the terrible truth sank in that she would never see her beloved Nonno again.
‘I was,’ Daniele assured her.
‘I’m glad he wasn’t alone.’ Guilt felt like a knife through her heart. She should have been with her grandfather. He had tried to persuade her to move to Italy and become his assistant at Morante Group to prepare for the role that would one day be hers. She’d assumed that she had plenty of time to spread her wings first. Paloma swallowed a sob. ‘When did Nonno collapse?’
‘Two days ago. I’ve managed to keep a news blackout and only a handful of people know about Marcello’s death.’ Daniele hesitated. ‘It is possible that someone on Morante Group’s board of trustees arranged for you to disappear.’
Paloma stared at him. ‘Why would any of them do that?’
‘You are the sole heiress to your grandfather’s fortune,’ Daniele reminded her. ‘The money comes to you straight away, and when you are twenty-five, you will take control of the company, as Marcello decreed in his will. But if something should happen to you, half of your inheritance is to be paid to the Morante Foundation charity and the other half will be divided equally between the eight board members, including your great-uncle Franco, but not myself. Your grandfather gave me a lifelong position on the board, but I am not a beneficiary of his will. In the event of your death, the other trustees stand to become multimillionaires, and the board will decide who to appoint as the new head of Morante Group.’
‘I’m young and healthy, and nothing is likely to happen to me.’ Paloma bit her lip when Daniele rolled his eyes. ‘You said yourself that kidnapping of foreigners is common in Mali.’
‘I suppose itcouldbe a coincidence that you were seized soon after Marcello died, but in my experience, coincidences are rare,’ Daniele said cynically. ‘If your flatmate hadn’t alerted me, I would not have known where to look for you. But someone knew the Morante heiress was in Mali, and I believe that person hoped to prevent you from claiming your inheritance.’
CHAPTER TWO
DANIELERAPPEDONthe bedroom door but got no response. He tried the handle but was not surprised to find that the door was locked. The previous evening, he had brought Paloma to a hotel owned by his close friend whom he trusted implicitly. In the penthouse suite, Paloma had locked herself in one of the bedrooms and Daniele had heard her crying for hours.
He had paced up and down the corridor outside her room, wondering if he should offer to try to comfort her as he had done after her father had been killed in a speedboat accident eight years ago. Paloma had been sixteen and still a child in Daniele’s eyes. A rapport had grown between them when he’d shared his experience of losing his own father when he had been a teenager.
But Paloma was no longer a schoolgirl, a fact that Daniele had been all too aware of when he’d flung himself on top of her in the back of the truck to protect her from the bullets that the kidnappers had been firing indiscriminately. His jaw clenched as he remembered how his body had reacted to the feel of Paloma’s soft curves beneath him. He had been shocked, frankly, by the kick of awareness in the pit of his stomach.
At thirty-six, he was way past the age of behaving like a hormonal adolescent. He dated selectively and enjoyed women’s company both in and out of the bedroom, although he had never felt an inclination to marry. It said a lot about him, Daniele acknowledged. He had guarded his emotions since he’d been five years old and watched his mother drive away from the family home. She had promised to visit him often, but she’d never come back. Eventually Daniele had given up staring out of the window in the hope of seeing her car turn the corner of the road. It had been an early lesson that promises were easily made and just as easily broken. A few years later, he had been invited to visit his mother, who had remarried, and he’d met his little half-brother. But since then, Daniele had not had any further contact with that side of his family for twenty-seven years.
He pulled his thoughts from the past and knocked on the door again. ‘Paloma, you need to eat. I’ve arranged for dinner to be served here in the suite.’
‘I’m not hungry.’ Her voice was muffled. ‘I want to be alone.’
